Thanks for the replies so far. I enjoy hearing opinions from others that support intellectual freedom.

Goatboy wrote:And an even greater time to demonstrate that those with power can abuse it!

Seriously though, look how easy that was. Any forum mod can change just about any post at any time. Imagine if that power was abused. Who says it hasn't been? Now think of the government. If a forum mod has free reign over a forum, what does the government control? (cue conspiracy music)

This reminded me of George Orwell's novels 1984 and Animal Farm.

In 1984, the main character, Winston, actually had a job destroying the records for the events that occurred in the past, while the government frequently altered history to cover up their mistakes and keep the citizens under control.

And in Animal Farm, the Pigs kept altering the actual events that occurred until the other Animals could no longer remember the events that really happened.

I could go on for hours about my feelings about censorship. Do I personally care what other people look at/read? No. But do I support (for example) exploiting little kids of Child Porn. Hell no. Do I care if someone writes a pedophiliac story? No.

For the most part, information should be free, but this also doesn't mean the U.S. Army should be giving out all their tactics, training, and weapons booklets on the internet either.

It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votesinsomaniacal.blog.com

My personal opinion on censorship is that I think everyone should be entitled to speaking about what they please, and if you don't agree with it, don't listen and try to find something to complain about. I think everyone should have the right to speak their opinions and not have to deal with others criticism just because someone in an educational facility disagrees with something they wanted to write on a piece of paper.

But, I'll try to be fair and list an opinion from someone that may oppose censorship. If you have children and don't want them exposed to something morally challenging, then some people might want to block material that the child has a possibility of being subjected to.

[contradiction]But then again, if you don't want your child being exposed to materials that they may be offended by, then, as a parent, don't buy the albums or the movies in the first place. And it's not like they'll be exposed to anything better in school. [/contradiction]

I only believe in personal censorship. Along with the right to free speech, you also have the right to "ignore" speech (there are just some things you don't want to hear about or put up with). Unfortunately, there are people who try to force their own views of censorship on others, which just ain't right.